Winston Reid (Unattached FC)

Scored a late equaliser in a friendly against Braga.

Thrashed by Tommy Smith's Tractor Boys:

http://www.nzfootball.co.nz/index.php?id=11&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=1788&tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=10&cHash=08574af8b3

Smith slotted back into the Tractor Boys side for the recent friendly against Winston Reid’s West Ham, playing the first hour of the game which Town won 3-1.

The Hammers bounced back from the defeat with a 1-1 draw in Portugal with Sporting Braga with Reid scoring the goal.

Speaking to West Ham’s official website Reid said “I thought we put in a good performance against Braga, after last week's game at Ipswich where we didn't perform so well the boys were determined to put a good shift in and I thought we thoroughly deserved our draw at the end there.

“Of course we don't like to lose like we did at Ipswich. We're professional footballers and we’re paid to win football games and that's what we want to do. Nobody enjoyed what happened there and we were determined to put things right against a better team than Ipswich [in Braga].”

West Ham opens their Premier League season with a home match against Aston Villa on Sunday morning (NZ time) with QPR facing Swansea at Loftus Road on the same day.

Starting tonight.

full 90 and a win for reid

Holman was involved again after receiving a reverse pass from Stephen Ireland but his cross was cleared by Winston Reid, one of three timely interventions from West Ham's Kiwi defender.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/report?id=345825&cc=5901

watched the game this morning - Reid looked good but Villa didn't really test the Hammers defence

Will be a confidence-boosting start for Reid I imagine. His debut against Aston Villa two years ago really set the tone for that entire season, so when the draw came out that they were playing them again in the first round I'm sure he was a little nervy. You wonder whether what sounds like a solid performance yesterday will have had some element of exorcising those demons about it. 

Stoked too that he nabbed a starting spot. If he can be a regular starter for West Ham and the team continues to do well that will be great for him and NZ football.

Reading one of the West Ham boards, it sounded like he was one of their best.

I though reid had an excellent game yesterday! I was also reading the West Ham fourms, seems like everyone is convinced on a Reid - Collions centre pairing!

And that's saying something with Tomkins in the squad! 

Collins was MOTM IIRC - he was all over everything. Tomkins came on as DM late, so it definitely looks like Winnie is first choice for now

Watching Winston play, I think his best attribute is keeping himself between the attacker and the goal - and like you said ^^ he excells in the physical side of football.

You are right about that, he just about cut the Swansea keeper in two. Did not help, 2-0 down before half time.

just got booked for handball

He might be great for the AW's but is out of his depth in the EPL.

I didn't see that at all last weekend he played really well.

Actually thought he was ok today. They didn't lose 3 nil on his account.

Collins and Jussi had shockers apparently.

West Ham v Fulham game is live on Sky tonight, hope he has a big game.

Reid puts West Ham up 2-0 in the first half. Header from a corner.

Andy Carroll? Who is this Andy Carroll? The Hammers have already got a target man, onya Winnie!

Good goal too! Good on ya Winston :)

3 - 0 win

Must say, he probably had the best game I've seen him play. Got his head on everything, couple of good covering slide tackles and scored a decent goal. Good showing ol' chap!

In the soccernet team of the week

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story/_/id/1149651/premier-league-team-of-the-week:--august-26,-2012?cc=3436

 Winston talks to Wynton

Adem Summerton on the latest round of EPL.Winston Reid on his goal for the hammers.Of course Wynton Rufer.

Just watched the "Premier League Preview Show" on Sky - Winston currently RATED THIRD BEST DEFENDER IN PREMIER LEAGUE in the EA Sports Player Performance Index for defenders.

Kick-off v Norwich away 10 mins away (live on Sky) !!!!

Winston Reid: "2-0 vs New Caledonia, 6-1 vs the Solomon Islands...New Zealand of course had a very good World Cup last time, they finished above Italy of course"...

Given man of the match.

played well in a pretty poor game

Big words of praise for Allardice - http://www.whufc.com/articles/20120915/big-sam-content-with-hard-earned-point_2236884_2919646

3 clean sheets from 4 games now.

^^  Easier to read like this

"Finally, one player who has excelled so far this season - as he did last term - is defender Reid. Despite travelling halfway around the world following his midweek international duty with New Zealand, the 24-year-old showed no signs of weariness to produce a truly outstanding performance.

Big Sam hailed the Kiwi's display, pointing to the development he has made as a player over the past 12 months.

"I don't want Reidy to get too big for his boots but I think his growth in our team has been superb. When we had that bad run of draws last season it's because he wasn't there. He was missing because he got concussion playing in a friendly for New Zealand.

"He missed all those games and we conceded in most of those games. Winston Reid came back and we went on to win, particularly at home, our games going into the Play-Offs because he was there.

"He has now carried that form into the Premier League and shown that his all-round defending is exceptionally good and I'm really pleased for him. His learning curve in one year has been massive and he's looking excellent."

Huge raps that, basically says with him we win, without we lose.

3 clean sheets in four games... great start.

Still in the Fantasy Premier League dream team too!

Fat Sam on Goals on Sunday this morning, talking about the last part of last season - "and then we lost Winston Reid who had been playing superbly for us, so we had to scrabble around for a replacement.  We lost him when he got concussion playing a stupid international friendly"

Yeah, the friendly comment was the most interesting part of that article... Guess we can kiss goodbye to seeing him for anything but qualifiers!